Explanation:
Named for the three astronomers instrumental in its discovery and
identification,
Wolf -
Lundmark -
Melotte
(WLM) is a lonely dwarf galaxy.
Seen toward the mostly southern constellation Cetus,
about 3 million light-years from the Milky Way,
it is one of the most remote members of
our local galaxy group.
In fact, it may never have interacted with any other local group galaxy.
Still, telltale pinkish star forming regions and hot, young, bluish
stars speckle the isolated island universe.
Older, cool yellowish stars fade into the
small galaxy's halo,
extending about 8,000 light-years across.
This sharp portrait
of WLM was captured by the
268-megapixel OmegaCAM widefield imager
and survey telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory.